Later.
after
Christrnas,
Thaler
was
taken
(along
with
others)
to
a
sateilite camp called
Hersbruck,
near the
tor+rr
of
the
same
name.
He
was
put
onto
a
train
with
the other prisoners:
"Outside
the
train
was
ready
and
waiting
nearby. We
were loaded on
to
the cattle trucks,
about
thirty
men
per
truck"
(Thaler
7B).
The
traveling conditions w€re
horribly
inhumane.
The
prisoners
weren't
even
allowed to
use
the
toilet,
and they received no food
for
two
days.
The
first
time
Thaler
saw
food he couid
think
of
nothing
else:
"I
grabbed my bread straight
away.
After
two
days
and
one
night
this
was
the
first
food"
(Thaler
B1).
Luckily
the
first
day at
Hersbruck
they
weren't
made
to work. But
the
days
following
were
pretty
harsh.
They
were made to
iine up
in
row
of
three
for
roll
call, and
if
the
lines
weren't
straight enough the prisoners were forced to
muck
about
in
the snow:
"But
when the
guards
were
in
a
very bad
mood
and the
roll-call
was
not
a
brilliant
success,
the
whole
group
was harassed even
more:
standing
to attention
the
biting
cold
for
hours at
a
time or crawling
around
in
the
snow,
then
standing up,
l)ryng
down
again,
etc.
This
procedure
sometimes lasted
rather
a
long
time"
(Thaler
B3).
Other
days
they were made to
construct walls, hew
stones,
and
build
barracks.
Work
lasted
until
noon for midday
meal and
then
more
work
until
five
in
the evening
for
a
meager meal
of
bread.
This labor
decreased
the health
of
Thaler
and
his
comrades
alarmingly:
"I
knew
from
Schianders
that
I
was
1,72
m
tall
[5
feet,
6
inches].
Now
I
was
1,70
m
[5
feet,
5
inches].
So
you
also
lost
height.
When
I
heard
that
I
weighed
forty-five kilos [99.208lbs],
I
thought
at
first that
I
heard incorrectly.
But
the man
repeated
what
he
had
said.
The
comrade
behind
me, an
Italian,
weighed
even
less,
forty-four kilos
[97
lbs]"
(Thaler
BB).
One
day,
Thaler
was
called
in
by the
SS
("The
Schutastffil,
German
for'Protective
Echelon,'
initially
served
as
Nazi
Party leader
Adolf
Hitler's
[1889-1945]
'lersonai
bodyguards;
and
later
became one
of
the most
powerful
and
feared organizations
in
all
of
Nazi
Germany.
Heinrich
Himmler
[1900-45],
a
fervent anti-Semite
like
Hitler,
became
head
of
the
Schutasffil,
or
SS,
in
1929
and expanded the group's role and
size.
Recruits,
who
had to prove none
of
their
ancestors
wereJewish,
received
rnilitary
training
and
were
also
taught they were the elite
not only
of
the
Nazi
Party
but
of
all
humankind" ("The
SS", history.com).
lle
was
told that
his
sentence
had been shortened,
from
ten
years
to two
and
a
half
years.
This
was
almost unbelievable
news
for
Thaler:
"Tears
ran
down my
face,
not
so
much
because
of
the
commutation, but
because
of
the
humaniq.'rvhich
this man let me feel.
I
could
have
embraced
him
for
joy"
(Thaler
93).
A
fet'
davs
later, the prisoners
left Hersbruck
and
returned
to
Dachau. They continued
to
labor under
LfTORGOTTE\:
A
R-E,PORT
ON THE
MEMOIR
OF
DACHAU
BY FRANZ
THAIER
